Apparently Fedor Emelianenko‘s departure from the one-and-done M-1 Global promotion – who co-promoted last year’s “Yarennoka!” event in Japan with former PRIDE and current DREAM runners FEG – didn’t kill talks for the much discussed reality show wherein prospects would duke it out for the chance to face the Russian heavyweight. According to a press release issued today, “Fighting Fedor” is still very much alive and will appear before the end of the year.
M-1 Global and BEST will launch a Fedor reality show entitled “Fighting Fedor” later this year to give an aspiring fighter the chance to train at the fabled Red Devil Fight Club in St Petersburg, Russia. The winner of the series will get the opportunity to fight Fedor. BEST will be also be distributing the M-1 Challenge worldwide this coming year, a series of 22 one-hour HD shows of the nation vs. nation mixed martial arts competition. The next challenge will take place in Korea.
It would be great to see this series come to fruition, if only to produce some kind of compelling fight for Fedor against an opponent he can actually face, and to get a glimpse inside the RDFC. But I’m gonna say I’ll believe it when I see it. BEST apparently has only three MMA clients: Emelianenko, UFC light heavyweight Houston Alexander and Gegard Mousasi, who will compete in the final round of DREAM’s Middleweight Grand Prix next month.
As for the M-1 Challenge shows, those seem a little more likely and – if the number of shows (22!) is accurate – even more exciting.
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